Take a look at the results at the end of a sprint on a Scrum project. There are two scenarios.

As shown above, both have the same user stories with the same story points for each:

User story 1: 13 story points

User story 2: 8 story points

User story 3: 3 story points

User story 4: 5 story points

User story 5: 1 story point

User story 6: 3 story points

User story 7: 1 story point

A closer look at both of the scenarios follow.

Scenario A

Here are some details on A:

User story 1: 70 hours of work performed, 5 hours of work remaining

User story 2: 51 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the Definition of Done [DoD])

User story 3: 45 hours of work performed, 13 hours of work remaining

User story 4: 29 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the DoD)

User story 5: 3 hours of work performed, 2 hours of work remaining

User story 6: 30 hours of work performed, 17 hours of work remaining

User story 7: 4 hours of work performed, 1 hour of work remaining

A is summarized as:

232 hours of work was performed, and 38 hours of work remains

2 user stories were done, and 5 user stories were not completed

Scenario B

Here are some details on B:

User story 1: 75 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the DoD)

User story 2: 51 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the DoD)

User story 3: 58 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the DoD)

User story 4: 29 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the DoD)

User story 5: 5 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the DoD)

User story 6: 14 hours of work performed, 33 hours of work remaining

User story 5: no work performed, and five hours of work remaining

B is summarized as:

232 hours of work was performed, and 38 hours of work remains

5 user stories were done, and 2 user stories were not completed

What CountsScrum requires teams to build an increment of functionality during every sprint. Only work meeting the Definition of Done (DoD) is counted as complete, demonstrated at the sprint review meeting, and is potentially shippable.

There were two scenarios. Both had the same user stories with the same story points for each, and the same amount of work hours performed. Yet the outcomes were dramatically different. In A, 2 user stories were done--and are to be demonstrated at the sprint review meeting, and are potentially shippable. In B, 5 user stories were done--and are to be demonstrated at the sprint review meeting, and are potentially shippable. B is the better scenario.

A possible explanation for the differences between the two situations is that the Scrum team in B may have done a better job of limiting Work in Progress.

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